PSA: Sprint Model Nexus 6 Having Provisioning Issues With Voice And SMS For Some Users

The Nexus 6 has been getting good reviews and an overall positive feel from consumers since the launch, but there were a couple of things here and there that had seemed to be bothering some users, like AT&T's use of the logo on the back for example, and the addition of all their bloatware(which wasn't a ton, and could be removed)albeit only on the AT&T models or if users had inserted the SIM card on a non-AT&T model before the setup process. For customers on Sprint, there seems to be an entirely different issue going around in regards to an unpleasant experience with the Nexus 6 usability.

Sprint Nexus 6 owners have apparently been having issues with their brand new phones provisioning both Voice and SMS after they had attempted to activate the phone. This was brought to our attention by our source at Sprint, and after doing a little bit of digging we stumbled upon a chat thread on the Sprint Community chat forums where people were expressing the very same problem we were informed of. We were told that the local store here in my area had a 100% failure rate with devices that were bought in-store and all had to be replaced, which lines up with what we've been seeing in the comments from users who were reporting the same problem on the chat forums. It seems to be a fairly widespread issue but also only seems to be limited to devices that were either purchased at Sprint retail locations or through Sprint's online website, as I've been told that no customers have brought in devices that were purchased through the Play Store expressing the problem. That doesn't mean however that it isn't possible for this issue to arise on a Play Store purchased model if you're trying to activate it on Sprint.

Sprint seems to be directing people to process device returns in order to fix the issue claiming it's a device specific problem, however some people on the community chat have stated that they've been through this process and the issue persisted. With that being the case it seems what's likely happening is that there is probably a bad batch of devices that were acquired by Sprint. While the issue may not be happening for every single customer who has purchased a Nexus 6 through Sprint(online or otherwise)it does seem to be affecting a large amount of customers. One user in the community chat comments mentions that the issue seems to be related to "whitelisting" the IMEI, although we're not exactly sure if that's the case as it hasn't been confirmed. Whatever is causing the issue, Sprint seems to be aware of the problems existence and is doing what they can to correct the problem, and hopefully that includes replacing any current stock they have with a new batch that is less likely affected with these problems, should the devices be the issue in the first place. Do you use a Nexus 6 on Sprint? If so are you having these problems with Voice and SMS provisioning?

Lover of food, craft beer, movies, travel, and all things tech. Video games have always been a passion of his due to their ability to tell incredible stories, and home automation tech is the next big interest, in large part because of the Philips Hue integration with Razer Chroma. Current Device: Google Pixel.